Hope House Children’s Hospice is an incredible place that helps children with life-threatening conditions to live their best lives, with two hospices, one nestled in the Shropshire countryside just outside Oswestry and one in the hills of the Conwy Valley.
We have worked with Hope House for two years now, both as fundraising supporter and specialist seating provider, and wanted to share the amazing work they do which we have been privileged to be a part of.
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The Work They Do
When you step inside Hope House hospice, you feel infused with an energy that makes this such a special place for children with life-threatening illnesses and their families.
Hope House has two sites, both set in stunning locations – Hope House in Oswestry and Ty Gobaith in Conwy. Their facilities include family suites, hydrotherapy pools, multi-sensory rooms, media and music rooms, and outdoor play and gardens, as part of the full suite of care for children and their families.
Hydrotherapy pool
Creating a safe haven for life-limited children with complex illnesses, every touchpoint of care is instilled by their purpose to “give every local child with a life-threatening condition and their family access to professional care and improve their quality of life from the point of diagnosis”.
Hope House Sensory Room
Funding Challenges
The hospice supports more than 750 families at any one time, either caring for a terminally ill child or grieving from the loss of their child. Funding to the tune of £9.6m is required annually to deliver the first-class care they provide.
Statutory funding pays on average two months’ running costs every year. For the other 10 months they are completely dependent on donations, fundraising and legacies to keep its doors open and services running. No charge is ever made to families.
Coupled with the current restrictions on government funding, this places a great financial burden on the hospice charity, but a challenge that the Fundraising Team are well equipped to rise to with their enthusiastic base of supporters in the industry and local community!
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Fundraising Campaigns
Having worked with hospices for many years, not just as a specialist seating provider but championing their cause, we wanted to run a campaign that would contribute to their much-needed funding and raise wider awareness of the work they do.
Our tuck shop in the staff canteen provides an array of sweets, treats and lunchtime snacks for our office staff at our company HQ in Wetherby. Every month the proceeds from tuck shop sales go to a charity of our choice. In July 2024 we chose Hope House Hospice as our charity for the month, with a fundraising target of £500!
Our donation will go towards the ‘Quality Moments’ campaign, creating those memorable, life-enriching experiences that the kids love, whether this is a skydive, wing-walk, or just being able to watch their favourite football channel.
Our Seating Provision
When we handed over the cheque and returned the rather cute rattan reindeer we had been looking after, we sat down with their care and physio team to review their stock of seating and check it was still meeting their requirements.
The seating we originally supplied was to meet the needs of children with Duchenne’s disease and mothers in the neonatal unit who needed comfy seating to support and feed poorly babies.
What impressed the care staff most when we initially demonstrated our seating was the way our chairs could be easily adapted, cleaned and moved to suit a diverse range of needs.
The chairs we supplied, Lento Mobile riser recliners and Lento care chairs, were multi-functional to suit a range of needs.
Lento Mobile – market-leading hybrid chair
Lento Mobile
Features and Benefits
The angle-adjustable push handle allows hospice staff to adjust to the right height when moving patients around.
Compact and portable – the slim profile and wheeled castors make it perfect for wheeling down corridors and through narrow doorways.
Standaid-compatible – the chair can be used with a variety of standing aids including the Sara Stedy, giving extra assistance to patients when standing up and sitting down.
Full postural support – the inbuilt lateral supports and reconfigurable backrest cushions support mothers in the neonatal unit with breastfeeding and postnatal care. The armrest width and height can also be adjusted to find the most comfortable position for mothers and their babies.
Infection control friendly – the modular removeable components and magnetic cushions make the chair easy to clean down and keep free from infection, perfect for the multi-use nature of the hospice.
Lento Care Chair – highly versatile care chair
Features and Benefits
The head-to-toe postural support in the Lento care chair, featuring the configurable headrest, backrest, articulating legrest and footplate, make it ideal for children at the hospice with Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy that need specialist postural support.
The built-in pressure relief and fully adjustable seat dimensions enhance end of life care, enabling staff and parents to hold and cuddle small children while being well supported, and enable skin-to-skin contact.
Our seating has also provided comfier chairs for the teenage kids, allowing them to recline and relax in the games room rather than staying in their bedrooms. Their non-clinical appearance makes these chairs fun to use, and they blend in well in the media room.
Conclusion
The clinical and medical care provided is second-to-none, but Hope House is so much more than that – a place where children can live their best lives and make the most of every moment, and a pillar for families to lean on during the most difficult times.
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